Vignettes from a multi-lingual, multi-cake-eating freelance existence

Who Eats The Most Mayonnaise, Ketchup, Mustard?

Mayo, ketchup, mustard – they all have their place. Sometimes they can be found in amiable unison, lubricating the innards of a nice juicy burger in fairly equal measures, but the uptake of these condiments shows considerable variation around the globe.

Personally, I’m not overly keen on mayonnaise – give me sour cream instead any day – but it is a popular condiment in Germany, where liberal lashings of it are added to potato salad, for example. Germany is also infamous for ‘Pommes mit Mayo’ (Chips/fries with mayonnaise). It’s at least as popular, if not more so, than the ketchup alternative. You can get Pommes mit Mayo from any burger van, unstylishly served in either a paper cone or a cardboard tray.

As for who eats the most mayonnaise, if anyone had asked me before checking*, I’d have plonked for the Japanese being the highest per capita consumers. I’ve seen them deploy this condiment, seemingly without any scruples, on most types of food, and especially on those that are not traditionally Japanese.

But I was wrong. Japan is 20th down the list! It’s the Russians who are the true kings of mayo, clogging up their arteries with 5.1 kg of the stuff in 2013 per capita. Japan managed a comparatively humble 1.5kg, the UK just a smidgen more with 1.6kg, while Germany is quite a long way down with just 1.0 kg, less than half of Dutch consumption levels.

Across the Atlantic, 1.9kg are set to slide down Canadian and US consumers’ gullets this year. Australians and New Zealanders won’t even hit the 1kg mark.

So, led by Russia, the top ten of mayo loving nations is dominated by Eastern European nations in the following order: Lithuania, Ukraine, Belarus, Belgium, Estonia, Latvia, Chile, Netherlands, Poland.

In case anyone’s wondering, the world’s leading mayo brand is Hellmann’s (by Unilever), followed by Kraft.

In the Ketchup stakes, Canada leads with 3.1kg per head, followed by Finland (3kg), Sweden (2.7kg), the UK (2.4kg), Norway (2.3kg), Austria and the US (both 2.2kg). Russians aren’t nearly as fond of ketchup as they are of mayonnaise, squirting just 1.4kg onto their bangers. And yes, of course Heinz is the world’s leading brand, who else?! Second in line, though, is Kagome, a Japanese brand, which I hadn’t expected. Must be big in the Asia Pacific region.

Händlmaier’s – Germany’s most popular sweet mustard brand

As for mustard, Slovakia sports the most enthusiastic uptake with 1.6kg per capita in 2013. The Czech Republic is in second place (1.2kg), and France ranks third (1.0 kg). At least Germany features in the top ten. We do love our mustard, and we have tons of different regional varieties. A very sweet type of mustard (as sweet as chutney), for example, is served with several traditional meat products and sausages, including the famous Weisswurst.

Weisswurst with mustard – A Bavarian classic. Which I don’t really appreciate :(

Are you more of a mayo, a mustard or a ketchup person? Are there any weird food combos featuring any of these in your country or region? I’d so love to hear about that!

I would have expected Belgium to be top for Mayo considering chips with mayonnaise is their national dish! Personally, I prefer mayo as a sandwich item… ham % mayonnaise, tuna mayonnaise. Yum! I will tolerate ketchup on burgers but HATE it on chips. And I don’t like any kind of mustard.

I just loooooove all your foodie articles. First of all, I am absolutely not surprised by the Russians’ love affair with mayo. All other salad dressings – even anything as basic as olive oil and vinegar – were virtually unknown to Russians until very recently. Even ketchup was a novelty we first tried in the 1990s! Mayo and mayo-based sauces are put on and in everything – from veggie salads to steaks. I love mayo! Also, spicy mayo is my favorite fries condiment.

I’m never sure about that… usually when a country labels something “X-country’s” something (be it a food or a disease), it usually has very little to do with the country in question, lol.
That’s why I was counting on your expert verdict!!! Shouldn’t have gotten my hopes up….

At least this sounds Russian. Recently a friend asked me to verify the recipe for a proper Moscow Mule cocktail, as I am the current Moscow resident. Except nothing remotely similar has even been heard of here.

As kids we would mix mayonnaise and ketchup, plunder the (at the time) expensive frozen prawns and eat them without our parents noticing. In Spain, we’re trying to avoid mayo and ketchup but mustard – what with all the lovely lomo etc – is proving harder.

Totally blanked on EVOO for a second. Got it — too much mediocre wine tonight for me. I usually do the same unless I splurge and spend an outrageous amount of money on dressings in Stokmann. Their selection is pretty good.

Brown sauce for me! Fish, chips, brown sauce and mushy peas! But I like, ketchup, mayo and mustard too! Hot English mustard with steak. Mayo with moules frites. Ketchup with a burger. Oh dear, did you guess I like food?

That mayo pizza looks horrible! It scares me. After living in Italy for 5.5 years I’ve learned to love food without the condiments. The only thing I allow myself is French mustard and I use it sparingly. Great post!

I’m surprised Australia doesn’t rank higher in mayo consumption! My sister has mayo on everything. I think I saw her have it on ice-cream once. And my father has mayo on his chips (what?! doesn’t he know you’re meant to have gravy on your chips?), which I used to think was an English thing, until he said he learnt to do that in Belgium. Which was equally surprising, since I didn’t know he ever spent any considerable time in Belgium…

I suppose Australia would be higher on the tomato sauce (not ketchup, never ketchup) rankings. I think we’re meant to be proud of having barbeques, and tomato sauce gets smothered on everything at a barbeque (mostly to cover up the burnt toothpaste flavour of the meat, I think). That said, how would they get the statistics? At least 50% of the people I know buy tomatoes wholesale and make their own tomato sauce…

Oh, let me tell you how much Russians love mayo. They put it on everything. It would surprise you the uses they find for it. Interestingly enough they are very health conscious, go figure. Sometimes you just have to throw caution to the wind.

The biggest problem in Russia today is alcoholism. I believe it’s the major reason for more male deaths in Russia than any other reason. But there is a growing trend of health consciousness here. When I first came to Russia my favorite drink was Coke. Here they consider it poison, Even people on the streets will give you dirty looks when they see it in you hand. Russia is changing, thank God.

Yes, the drinking culture… it is the biggest issue. The traditional diet, as such, is really quite healthy, what with stuff like buckwheat, fish, cabbage, beets, etc. But you’d know all about that, I’m sure.

Ah now you’d need to be investigating the Dutch. One reason why I moved to NL was a portion of fries that I had once. They were served to me in East England ‘Dutch’ style. With mayonnaise (special friet sauce technically) ketchup and raw onion. Then when I got here I discovered ‘patatje oorloog’. The direct translation is ‘chips war’. It comes with mayo, those same chopped onions and peanut sauce! Delicious!

Best chips and mayo in the world: Eat them at a real “fritkot” which you can find in almost every self-respecting town in Flanders-Belgium. The fries there are usually deep-fried in ox fat. (“French fries” or chips were also invented in Belgium during WWI by the way. Not in France as many people may think.)